More Than Meets The Eye
by misguidedghost77
Summary: When a sixteen year old girl is dragged against her will to an unknown world, she finds she's lost her eyesight. Fortunately for Selena, the Elric brothers happen to find her just as she arrives, and she will join them, hoping their quest for the Philosopher's Stone will yield answers as to her presence there and how to return home. Al/OC. Based on the Brotherhood anime. Abandoned.
1. Prologue: Golden Eyes

_Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist nor any of its characters._

_A/N: Well, shortly ago I became pretty obsessed with Fullmetal Alchemist, so I wrote this. I don't know. I'll leave it to your criteria. _

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**More Than Meets The Eye**

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**PROLOGUE: Golden Eyes**

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**- Victor -**

**oo0- California, February 3rd, 1999 - 0oo**

The rain was pouring down in Malibu once again. The radio had warned that this would be one of the rainiest summers in California in the past ten years. Victor activated the windshield with a sigh. Not exactly the best day to get a heart attack. Father was getting old indeed. He had lived a long and fulfilling life, but everything was coming to an end. It was the second heart attack he'd had on the past six months. Victor had seen this coming.

His mind quickly deflected to the news he had been given today that would change his life. Maria was pregnant. He was going to be a father. And precisely that same day his own father had to have a heart attack.

"Nice timing, Dad," he thought bitterly.

Nevertheless, the news had shocked him a little. He didn't have to worry about the income: his salary as a teacher in the University of California paid well, and the funds for his diverse research were not even close from getting cut. He had been making advances in the last year, fortunately.

What worried him was his relationship with his wife. He and Maria had begun to get distanced a little. Maria did not understand anything about physics and did not care in the slightest for chemistry. She was a high school teacher, and her heart was poured into her students. Victor hadn't cared much for a while. She kept the bed warm for him, prepared his breakfast and lunch and enjoyed a movie with him every now and then, she was the perfect companion. She hadn't seemed to care, either, until a few months ago. Victor had detected a change in his wife. She began to call him at work, to make scenes when he arrived later than usual, to get jealous of his graduate students, she had even made him buy a mobile phone he did not need… As if she feared she was losing him to another woman.

Victor snorted to himself. As if. He didn't need any other woman. He did love his wife, dearly. But his research and his projects were first. It was the scientist's life. He had thought she had understood. They had had talks about it when they decided to get married. But she would never lose him. In fact, she was beginning to upset him with all those displays of love. He wasn't a warm person, he had never been. And since Maria was the exact opposite, he had always thought they complemented each other. Maria was the heart, Victor was the brain.

But since everything had started, Maria had become… insistent. Victor now saw himself in the need of reporting to his wife every move he made, or she would freak out later. He didn't want to lose her, but it was happening. He was not a man to be kept on a short leash. He was not a dog she could call at her side whenever she wanted to. She was losing him, indeed, but not to another woman, but because of her own jealousy.

Last month had been the worst ever. She had gone completely berserk when one night he went out to dinner with a few colleagues (all men, to make it worse) and he forgot to call her. That night Victor had decided that was it. He couldn't take it anymore. They had argued for the entire night, and finally they had come to an agreement. Maria would start to go to a shrink. She needed to deal with her feelings or they would have to take some time off. Of course, the reconciliation sex was the best they'd had in a long time. And now it turns out she had forgotten to take the pill that day.

He wasn't worried about the child itself, he was all too happy to become a father, and he even believed he had been longing to do so for a while, deep inside. But he was worried about how this would affect his relationship with Maria. She had began to go to the shrink, but now this past week she'd began to hint they should go to couple's therapy. Couple's therapy! How pathetic was that!

Victor shook his head, upset. _Couple's therapy. God._

He was so immersed in his thoughts that he almost missed the exit. He hit the brakes, getting a cacophony of horns behind him, but ignored it as he turned right and took the exit towards his father's neighborhood.

His Dad had definitely picked the wrong year to die. Of course, Victor was happy he had survived the heart attack, but, according to what he had been told over the phone, Jace would not survive the next one, if there was one. He had been sent home, with a warning.

The only thing Victor could hope was that his mother could take care of him and he wouldn't have to bring Jace into his own house. He had enough problems at home already, and with Maria all hormonal from her pregnancy… He didn't even want to think about it.

By the time he parked the car at the front of his father's large house, the heavy rain had turned to a light drizzle. As usual, Victor snorted at the large golden gate he had to go through to reach the house. It was not a mansion, but Jace had insisted in putting an enormous golden fence at the entrance, flanked by two rather large sculptures of eagles staring down at the impressed visitor.

Victor allowed his lips to form a tiny smile. Jace was an eccentric of sorts. A respected scholar and world eminence in inorganic chemistry, Victor's father was also an amateur historian, his period of interest ancient Persia, and he claimed to be the last alchemist. When Victor was a child, Jace had imprinted on his heart the passion for science and the eternal search for Truth. Victor owed everything he was to his father, and he was indeed saddened to see such a brilliant mind fade with age.

In the past five years, Jace had been immersed in a personal project: He was researching alchemy. Victor had told him repeatedly that it was a dead science, that its esoteric side was almost laughable and that he was wasting his time and brains. But his father had not given up, and he had become more and more obsessed with alchemy and alchemists through history. Jace could recite Paracelsus' whole theory, and Flamel and Newton had become his heroes. Victor had tolerated his father's eccentricities all his life, and he put up with listening to his wild theories during family reunions and all for a while. But it came to a point where he simply couldn't take it anymore and he just stopped going to his parents' house for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year.

His mother, God bless her, understood him very well, and did not make any complaints. The sweet woman settled for calling him once in a while and chat for some time. Just like Maria, Caroline was not a scientist and understood little of what her husband and son did, but she loved to observe the devotion father and son shared, and she was content to be their support whenever they needed it.

Victor rang the bell, and a large smile settled on his face when Caroline came to open the door, her arms open for her son, as always. Her hair seemed whiter than the last time, if that was even possible. The wrinkles around her eyes became clearly visible to Victor as she smiled at him while opening the fence. When he wrapped his arms around her, he realized with an internal gasp that she was becoming fragile, way too fragile.

"'Hey, Mum."

"Hello, dear. It's been too long."

Victor sighed as they walked inside. "I know. How is he?"

Caroline took a deep breath, and Victor was worried to see her eyes darken. "He is well now, but…"

Victor took her hand. "What did the doctors say?"

"They said… He might not make it if he gets another one." Caroline looked up, and her blue eyes pierced Victor's soul. The sadness in them made him itch. But then she gave him a sad smile. "It is to be expected after all. He is ninety five, I guess I should have known this was coming."

"I'm sorry, Mum," he mumbled, wishing he had something better to say.

But her wrinkled hands squeezed his a little, and she smiled again. "Don't, dear. We've lived a long happy life together, and I am grateful for the time we've shared."

Victor smiled back at her, and then they were there, the door to his father's bedroom. Caroline opened the door and let him through. The sight was pitiful.

Jace was lying on the bed, surrounded by large pillows that helped him sit erect. His white hair had disappeared from the top of his head, falling instead from a line at about his ears to over his shoulders. His face was filled with wrinkles, and Victor noticed many of them were new. His hands had stains, and his eyes were closed. Even if his expression was peaceful, Victor knew his father all too well not to detect something was worrying him dead bad. He seemed to have aged many years since the last time Victor saw him, many more than the ones actually lived. Jace's breath was steady, but he opened his eyes when Victor walked closer to him, and his lips twitched in a smile. Nevertheless, the muscles of his face were tense, and Victor deduced the heart attacks hadn't been for nothing. Jace's eyes pierced Victor's, and once again he felt examined, as if those amazing eyes the perfect shade of liquid gold could see through his soul.

"Hello, son."

"Hey, Dad. You've been fooling around lately, I see."

Jace's chest heaved with a quiet laugh. "I've been working a lot, yes. The doctors said I should take vacations every now and then, but I told them if they said that was because they weren't true scientists."

Victor smiled, shaking his head in fake exasperation. "Oh, you didn't!"

"Yes, I did. Only then one of them reread my name and identified me. And then he went whispering to the other doctor 'It's the man nominated for a Nobel Prize!' You should have seen how they gaped at me then."

Victor laughed. "I bet you gave them something to talk about, Pops."

"You betcha." Jace's hand closed around Victor's. "I am so glad to see you, son."

"Me too, Dad."

Then his father's eyes focused on his wife's smiling face.

"Carol, darling, why don't you prepare some tea? My son and I have to catch up on each other's work."

Caroline nodded and left the room, but Victor shifted in his seat, uncomfortable.

"Umm, yeah, about that. Listen, Dad, I've been thinking…"

But as soon as the door closed, Jace's face transformed, and the pressure on Victor's hand increased, as his voice took an urgent tone.

"Listen, son, listen to me very carefully, for I don't know if I'm going to live to see you again."

"Dad, don't say that! You'll be fine! You just have to-"

Jace leaned towards Victor, his face tense with worry. "No, Victor, listen to me. There's something I have to tell you, something I've kept secret throughout my entire life, but it affects you too, and you need to know it before I die."

Victor's jaw dropped, and he found himself at a loss of words. Jace took a deep breath.

"It is a long story… I know it will sound completely crazy to you, specially because you're a scientist like me and you don't believe in anything your eyes can't see. But you must believe me. If you don't, you can check all my research and you will find the answers there."

"What are you talking about, Dad? Does this have to do with your research on alchemy?"

"Yes… and no. Listen, Victor, have you ever met anyone with golden eyes?"

"Umm, not really…"

"That's right. Because there is no such eye color on this dimension."

Victor's face contorted with puzzlement. "On this dimension? What are you talking about?"

"Victor, I was not born on this Earth. I come from a different dimension, from a city called Xerxes. A city whose people were murdered in a single night. A city where everyone had golden eyes. A city where Alchemy was the main science. A city that alchemy turned into a Philosopher's Stone!"

Victor widened his eyes. He didn't know what he expected to see on his father, but he was definitely not expecting this. Jace had completely lost his mind.

"I found out what the Homunculus was planning, and tried to warn the King. But he did not listen to me, and I realized there was no way I could stop him. Refusing to take part in such an evil plan, I ran away to the desert, and I became the only survivor of the massacre, and the last Xerxesian alive. I travelled to a distant country called Amestris, and, after taking on a different name and going into hiding, I began researching alchemy again. But my enemy found me, and tried to kill me, to end my race, and I had to escape again. But this time I was stronger, more powerful, and wiser. I teleported myself, and the Truth at the Portal sent me to this Earth, and thus I escaped him. But my research notes were left there, and I have lived my entire life in fear that he would come after me… My son, I have never spoken to you about this because I didn't want you to live with fear like I did. But you must be ready and protect yourself. The Homunculus will come someday, and if he doesn't find me, he'll inflict his revenge upon you, or your descendants.' Jace's eyes turned into a plea, as he leaned closer to his son, but Victor backed up, disgusted at what he was hearing. 'Victor, please, you must believe me. You know I always wanted you to practice martial arts, or keep a gun at your home for self defense… This is important. He will find you, and your family!"

Victor couldn't hold it anymore. "You're insane! You're mad! How… how did this happen? You were a brilliant scientist, the brightest I've ever known! How have you allowed this to happen to you?"

He stood up and backed away to the door. His father reached out his hand for him, desperate.

"Victor, please! Believe me! Go over my research, you'll find the truth there!"

Victor turned around and left through the door, more revolted than he cared to admit. He was on his way to the front door, when he almost stumbled with his mother, who was carrying a tray with two mugs.

"Already leaving, dear?"

Victor stopped on his tracks. His mother had nothing to do with it all. Her blue eyes were staring at him with sadness.

"Yeah… I've got to… Umm… Maria just called me… She is…" then he remembered he hadn't given his parents the good news. "She's pregnant!"

Caroline's face illuminated with a large smile.

"Honey, that's terrific news!"

Victor returned a forced smile. "Yeah, I know. She just called me, she's feeling sick, so I'm gonna go…"

Caroline stared at him, and once again Victor knew she knew that was not the real reason. He had never been able to lie to his mother. She seemed to see right through him as if he was made of glass rather than flesh.

"If you must go, then, give Maria my love, will you?"

"Sure, Mom," he nodded. He walked closer to her, took the tray from her hands and laid it on a table nearby, and hugged his mother. Caroline wrapped her arms around him as well.

Ten minutes later, he was on the highway driving back to Los Angeles. It was disturbing to see how much his father had deteriorated in such short notice! The story he had come up with, God! Coming from another world… Jesus. And he had referred to the strange color of his eyes as evidence! Victor had never met anyone with eyes like his and his father's, but that didn't mean anything! It was probably some genetic defect… And his father was an orphan, clearly, since he had no family until he had married Caroline. But making up such a story to justify a lonely childhood was not acceptable. Victor decided he might have a talk with Maria's shrink. Perhaps she would accept to treat his father as well… Though it was kinda pointless anyway, Victor thought sadly. His father wasn't going to be around for much longer. That he was insane didn't mean that he was dangerous or something. If his mother agreed to take care of him, they could just let him live the last days of his life in peace in his demented world.

Victor sighed. His father's mad idea had probably been influenced by one of the latest ideas in the theory of strings. It basically postulated that there were a number of alternate universes that could interact through gravity. Victor hadn't had the time to go through the research in deep. He had read about it in the monthly science magazine he was subscripted to, but it didn't have all the information. Would it be even possible? The theory, as far as he could remember, gave a major importance to the role of the graviton. It was pushing the line a little, but truth was nobody knew much about the graviton anyway…

By the time he reached his exit, his mind had drifted towards the new theory and its concept, and he had almost forgotten every word his father had told him.

**- Jace -**

On his bed, Jace sighed. He knew his son wouldn't believe him at once, but he hoped in due time, he would dare to go through Jace's notes and see the Truth. It wouldn't happen in his lifetime, anyway.

His mind went back to his youth, and he remembered one more time the beautiful marble columns of the King's palace in Xerxes, and many of the citizens who were friends with him… He had never forgiven himself for turning his back on his people.

He could only hope Homunculus never did find the way through the Portal.

**oo0- Resembool, Amestris. February 3rd, 1899 -0oo**

**- Van Hohenheim -**

Hohenheim was walking up and down the living room of the small house, clutching his hair. He knew Pinako would kick his ass if he dared to go up the stairs, but Trisha's screams were driving him out of his mind. The anxiousness he had lived with for the past nine months was burning on his brain. He was not human, he hadn't been for a very long time. What would his child be?

Would it be a monster, like him?

Trisha released a high pitched scream, and Hohenheim moaned in spite of himself. He could heal her, he could help her! But Pinako simply wouldn't let him. She had said giving birth was women's task, and men should stay out. But Hohenheim could barely hold himself. What if something happened to Trisha? What if the birth didn't go right? He had to help her! He couldn't stand to listen to her suffering like this!

And then, the most miraculous sound filled the house. The cries of a baby reached Hohenheim's ears. "Fuck that, Pinako," he thought as he raced up the stairs. But Pinako was already coming out of the room, her clothes stained with blood. Hohenheim was relieved to see that the amount of blood on her apron wasn't the dangerous one.

"Oh, just go in there and meet your son, Hohenheim, she's fine!," Pinako said with her usual bluntness, pointing at the open door.

Hohenheim rushed up, but he stopped in his tracks when he stood at the gate of the room. The sight before his eyes was the most beautiful thing he had seen in his long life. Trisha was lying on the bed, propped up over some pillows, holding a small bunch in her arms, the sunlight from the window illuminating her glowing face.

"Come, darling, meet our son," she said, and the light in her smile dazzled him.

He walked closer to the bed, and sat next to her. She raised the small bunch, and placed it in his arms. A pair of golden eyes looked right at him, and as his fingers went to touch the baby, a tiny hand closed around his thumb.

"Say hello to your daddy, Edward," Trisha whispered.

Hohenheim turned to look at his wife.

"Edward?"

"Edward."

Then his eyes returned to baby Edward, whose perfect features showed clearly he was a normal, human baby. Hohenheim felt his heart inflame with a powerful feeling he could not describe in words, and he did not register the tears of joy rolling down his face when he fixed his eyes in Edward's.

"Hello, Edward. I'm your daddy."

A small tear fell over Edward's beautiful face, and the baby blinked, surprised by the cold wet contact, and began to cry.

Trisha laughed a short laugh, and extended her arms.

"Give him to me, love." She expertly brought the little bunch close to her chest and began to breast feed him, staring at him with all the love of the world in her eyes.

Then she looked back at Hohenheim, and smiled.

Hohenheim knew then with dead certainty that this was and would definitely be the best day of his long life.

**oo0- California, September of 2002 -0oo**

**- Victor -**

"Victor, dear, will you go buy some chocolate? Everyone will be here soon and I haven't finished the cake yet!"

"Sure, honey." Victor grunted as he rolled his eyes, carefully manipulating the vials. There was a hiss and a short puff of smoke, and he smiled. He lifted the vial carefully to show its solid content to the little girl sitting on the table.

"Very well, Selena, can you tell me what this is?"

"Iron!"

"And what did I just do?"

"You extracted pure iron from that rock, by using rocks of carbon."

Victor beamed at his daughter. "Very well! Can you tell me the properties of these elements and the one you didn't mention?"

The little girl frowned in concentration.

"Iron is a metal, its symbol is an F and an E, its atomic number 26. Carbon is non-metal, symbol a C, atomic number 6. Oxygen is a non-metal, symbol is an O, atomic number is 8. It is normally found in _componds_ with other elements."

"Perfect, sweetheart. Just remember that the word is _compound_, not _compond._"

Selena nodded, and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to retain that new piece of information. Victor could not be any prouder of his daughter. She had turned out to be a prodigy, with higher IQ level than many kids her age, and she was always curious. Victor had gotten used to taking her at his lab, and teaching her everything he knew, since she was a baby, explaining as if he was talking to a college student. He knew she couldn't understand what he said, but the attention she paid to him was priceless. Soon she grew interested in his work, and when Maria and he found, at about her second year, that she was extremely gifted, Victor insisted in getting her a personal teacher. This way, by her third birthday the little girl had learnt to read and elementary chemistry. She loved to recite the periodic table of elements and the properties of each element.

Victor had also begun to teach her to recognize each element in its natural state, using some mornings to drive with her to the mountains and showing her. The current subject they were studying was basic processes of extraction of metals. Victor had taught her about a week ago the process of extraction of iron from iron ore, and he was testing her.

As he had expected, she remembered it perfectly well. Sometimes it was as if she had a mini computer inside her brain, but her psychologist had told him kids absorb a lot of what happens around them.

"Daddy, can I ask you something?"

"Sure, love."

"I borrowed a book from you last weekend. Is it okay?"

Victor looked severely at his daughter. "Remember to ask before you take something, Selena. Just for this time, I won't be mad at you."

Selena looked down, making an adorable pout, and Victor had to refrain himself from hugging her and kissing her entire tiny face. A lesson was a lesson.

"Okay."

"Now then, which book did you borrow?"

"Chemistry I."

"And do you like that book?"

"Oh, yes, very much' she said excitedly. 'I've learnt a lot from it!"

Victor smiled at her. "I'm glad."

"VICTOR! THE CHOCOLATE!" Maria's shrill scream made both father and daughter start.

"I better go or your Mum will have a stroke," Victor mused, lifting the small girl and carrying her to the kitchen as she giggled. He deposited her on the only clean spot of the table, and quickly ran away before his overstressed wife could continue yelling at him.

**- Maria -**

Maria kept preparing the sandwiches for the important dinner. It was Selena's third birthday, and her whole family was coming to dinner. Victor's mum was coming too.

"Mommy, do you know the tool you're using is made of iron and it could get rusty?"

Maria impatiently wiped her forehead, covering it with flour.

"Yes honey, I do. But this one will not get rusty because I clean it often."

"Because rust is toxic, I read it in the book… Does toxic mean it makes your belly hurt?"

"Yes, Selena, that's what it means."

"Oooohh," was the response. "Mommy, did you know that both diamond and graphite come from carbon?"

"No, Selena, I didn't," said the increasingly frustrated Maria, as she eyed her watch. Oh dammit! It was nine o'clock already! The guests would be here any minute! And Victor hadn't bought the chocolate yet!

"And mommy, did you know that-"

"Selena, sweetie, look, Mommy is really busy right now. Do you think you could leave your questions for later?"

The girl was silent for a second. "Yes, Mom." Then she hopped off the table and walked away.

Maria leaned out the door of the kitchen, watching the little girl climb the stairs to her bedroom.

"You might want to get dressed! As soon as I'm done here, I'll go help you out!"

"Yes, mommy," was the answer. But her sad voice and slouched shoulders made Maria feel guilty. Poor child, she was not to blame. But Maria was really stressed right now. She would make it up to her later.

Maria loved her daughter dearly, but disagreed with Victor on his method for educating her. Yes, Selena was a prodigy, but that didn't mean she wouldn't have to go to school or make friends. It didn't mean she couldn't have a normal life. Maria wanted the best for her daughter, and from her point of view, the best was not to push her and let her live a normal life.

Problem was, that didn't seem to be what Selena herself wanted. But she was too young to know what was best for her! Maria had already been checking some schools in the area. She wanted to send her little genius to the best school ever, but Victor disagreed and refused to pay for a school. He wanted Selena to be homeschooled. But how could a child grow up without leaving her house ever? How could she have friends? Maria was a high school teacher, and she saw every day how cruel kids could be, but she trusted her Selena was tougher than that. She was a sweet child, but she knew how obsessive she could get, even at her tender age, and when she put her head up to something, she got it. That was a trait she had inherited from her father and grandfather, and Maria knew she would make it through school, it would make her tougher, more confident. It was a life experience she had to go through.

This had been the basis of Victor and Maria's every single argument over the past six months.

And, oh _for crying out loud_, where was the chocolate?!

The bell rang, and Maria moaned. But a second later there was a noise of feet coming down the stairs.

"I'll get it, Mommy!"

Maria leaned out the door of the kitchen. "Wait!"

The girl stopped at her tracks and turned around to look at her. Maria examined her. She was wearing a short white dress, long socks and the little white shoes Maria had bought last week. Proper.

"Fine, open up and tell them to wait in the dining room. I'll get changed and meet them in ten minutes, okay?"

Selena nodded. "Yes, mommy."

Maria smiled with pride. Her princess was a whole little lady.

**oo0- California, December of 2002 -0oo**

**- Victor -**

Victor walked into his studio with the huge box. What was Mom thinking? Hadn't he gone through enough in the past few months? Why would she give him that anyway?

He placed the box onto the table, and stared at it, his mind filled with doubts. Should he peruse the box now?

He opened the box out of curiosity. He knew what it was: his father's research. All his notes from the last year, condensed in one big box. He picked up a notebook and opened it in about the middle. It was filled with drawings of strange circles, formulas and phrases in latin. What the…?

Victor shook his head and placed the notebook inside the box. Maybe later. He had to finish the papers for Selena's custody.

After two months of constant arguments, Maria had finally given up her claim of custody for the child, when the judge decided to bring Selena herself to court and have her decide who she wanted to be with. Maria's soft heart was crushed at the idea of putting her princess through that, and she gave up. They had finally decided on a shared custody. Weekdays she lived with Daddy, weekends she spent with Mommy, with the possibility of exchanging if both parents agreed.

They were both sorry for Selena, but it had become clear after the massive argument on the girl's third birthday that they could not live together anymore. The last thing any of them wanted was to grow their child in an environment of violence and arguments. So they had decided to get the divorce.

And to think it all had been because of a simple lab set game for kids that Victor had bought for Selena. Maria had accused him of enforcing his own ideas into the child's brain, and it was Selena's pleas that had stopped the fight, when she suggested with tears in her eyes to return the gift, even though it was pretty clear she had loved it.

That was the breaking point for them. They were tearing each other apart, but they were destroying their daughter on the process. So after two months, life was finally becoming easy again. Maria had also agreed, though reluctantly, to let the girl study with a teacher at home instead of sending her to school, and everyone was happy.

But he had had virtually no rest during those months. And now that it was finally over, his mother had called to ask him if he could take his father's research notes, since she was moving out. Jace had died a month before Selena was born, as it had been predicted by the doctors, but Victor had not gone through his material as he had promised, because he was scared of what he might find.

But a couple of hours later, once he had finished the custody paperwork and he was trying to relax with a cup of tea before the fire, curiosity bit up on him again, and he went up the stairs to check on the materials.

He did not pay much attention to much of it, simply going over the pages, glancing here and there. Until suddenly…

"No way! Impossible! This… this can't be true!"

Victor's eyes widened and his hands began to run through the papers, in a manic mood, searching for the key to the mystery. Then he found it. A simple page, with a drawing of a huge gate.

His eyes flickered around the room, trying to take in the implications of what his father had discovered. But, if that part of his story was true, how about the part of…?

He began to rummage over the papers again, desperately, until the hand drawn picture of a dark figure with an inhuman smile appeared before his eyes.

"Homunculus…" he whispered.

**oo0- The Alps, Switzerland, September of 2014 -0oo**

The chilly wind was howling like a wolf at night into Victor's ears, but the mix of the sun warming his back, the stuffed clothes he was wearing and the quick rhythm they had adopted had Victor sweating under his parka. He stopped for a second to stare at the beauty of the landscape, the peaks of the mountains gleaming under the sun, the majestic valley lying low beneath his feet. The rock was cold against his hands, so cold he even felt it through his gloves. It was actually a cold day for September, but hey, it was the Alps.

Victor's attention was then drawn to the lithe figure climbing a feet above him, a meter at his right, as pebbles fell down into the void below.

"Be careful, honey! That's tricky field!"

The ringing of her carefree laughter echoed over the valley beneath them.

"Dad, I am fine!"

Victor stared at his young daughter with concern as she climbed effortlessly, and he sighed, shaking his head. Sometimes it scared him how much Selena was like Jace. As the graceful teenager moved past him on the face of the mountain, Victor once again wondered if it had been his fault.

After the divorce from Maria, Victor had attained custody of the young girl, and the first thing he did was sign her up for martial arts classes. The picture he had found in Jace's paperwork had haunted him all those years. Victor hadn't dared to dive into his father's research, scared of what he might find, but he wasn't going to put the life of his daughter on the line anyway.

And Selena had proven to deserve every bit of protection he could give her. She was not reckless, she did understand how much she meant for her parents, and she was careful. But it was her natural curiosity that drove her forward. Maria had almost had a heart attack when they both had attended a presentation of her martial arts teacher, and the man sparred with Selena while she was blindfolded, with swords, at around her twelfth birthday. Victor remembered the panic he had felt pretty well too, but his daughter had danced gracefully, avoiding each and every blow, and came down from stage glowing in excitement after it was finished, to find both her parents terribly upset. They had decided to terminate Selena's martial arts training, but the young girl had learned by then how to get something from them when she wanted it, and her pouts and pleas and reasonable arguments that it had all been staged convinced her parents to allow her to continue.

At the same time, she had progressed wonderfully in her studies, earning a high school diploma at the age of eleven. She had been interested in chemistry since very young, and once she had her degree, she began to research and collaborate in her father's lab. At her fifteenth birthday, she had been admitted in Berkeley with honors, being scheduled to begin that dawn, and she was already immersed in a project of her own: She was researching the field of sensory substitution, hoping to develop a better device than those in the market to help the sight impaired to "see" through sound. Selena claimed that her experience in fighting blindfolded had helped her realize how difficult life was for blind people, and she wished to help them. Another field she was very interested in, to Victor's despair, was Jace's research on alchemy. And to think he had discovered only a week ago that she had been secretly reading her grandfather's papers for over a year.

"Dad, what are you doing down there? Come on, are you rusty or what?" she laughed, and Victor rushed to meet her challenge.

In a way, Selena had become the companion his wife had failed to be: they spent long nights awake talking, discussing the latest news on their respective fields. He had also introduced her to his post-grad students, and even though she shunned them at first, she was slightly more comfortable now, or so he thought. The one and only thing she didn't seem to be good at was at making socials. She was as shy and awkward as he was at her age, and Maria kept scolding Victor for that, claiming that it was a consequence of her home schooling. Still, considering what a prodigy she was, it was a minor defect, Victor thought.

He had long ago decided to ignore the fact that his daughter seemed to want to spend more and more time alone lately, and her research was absorbing her. Nevertheless, it was something that kept pricking at the back of his mind whenever Selena worked at her lab or spent long nights awake. Victor was proud of her, she would be a great scholar, an eminence like her grandfather; but sometimes her determination could border with obsession, to the point where her father had decided to bring her to the Alps on holidays. Every scientist, even the greatest geniuses the world had ever known, needed a break every now and then. Victor knew he had done well: Selena's smile returned to her face and her lightheartedness was back. With a small smile, the physicist hurried to catch up with the laughing teenager.

He reached the ledge where Selena was supposed to be waiting for him, and he narrowed his eyes: his daughter was checking the end of the ledge beyond the drawn lines that marked safe territory.

"Selena! Come back here immediately!"

"Dad, it's okay! I'm just trying this!" She pinned the piton on the rock and then turned to smile at her father. "Check this out!" and she released some rope, hanging free over the abyss.

Victor felt the hair at the back of his head prickle, and once again the fear for his daughter mixed with the strange feeling that they were being watched.

"Selena, for God's sake, come back!"

His daughter was always looking for new challenges, pushing herself to her limit, always wanting more, but this was going far enough.

"Selena, as your father, I order you to come back here!"

The smile in the young girl's face faded, and her caramel eyes gleamed with protest.

"Dammit. You take all the fun off it, you know?"

Victor breathed with relief as she hoisted herself up, and she grabbed on to the rock as she unpinned the harness, carefully sliding sideways back to safety.

But then, a horrific sound shook Victor to his very core, as the call of Earth itself climbed up to where they were, two tiny figures in the vast emptiness: A tremor rushed from the depths of the mountain, and Victor extended his hand to his daughter instinctively, but she held herself to the rock, as their world began to rumble.

Suddenly, Selena's eyes widened in terror.

"It's coming from up, not down! It's not a quake, it's an avalanche!"

And effectively, one second too soon, Victor looked up to see pricks of snow beginning to fall from the final ledge right on top of them, a hundred meters above.

"Selena!" he shouted in horror, but his daughter adopted a determined look as she began to move towards him, crawling against the rock, her feet barely moving.

And then… her foot slipped.

It was like a moment of eternity, as her body began to fall, her eyes wide open with terror, her lips opened in a scream of agony that would never leave Victor's memory, and he dashed over to her position to grasp her, but one second too late.

Her terrified hands left the rope, and Victor could see her falling in the air, falling down, as the rope followed her. And then Victor managed to reach the piton, and he punched it quickly into the rock, making sure it would hold his daughter's weight and her fall. Just in time. With a sharp noise, the rubber rope tensed, and Victor leaned over the edge, forgetting the snow that was now beginning to rain over him, to see Selena hanging over the abyss, two hundred meters below.

Selena's face was too far away to make out her features, but Victor could tell she was terrified.

"It's okay, honey! I've got you!" he shouted over the edge, as he turned to look at the harness. But Selena's shrill scream called upon him, and he leaned over the edge again.

His eyes could barely believe what they were watching. A bunch of sharp blades, black like shadow, appeared out of nowhere, seemingly from the very guts of the mountain, and surrounded his daughter with darkness. Her scream was suddenly muffled, and the darkness slowly swallowed her into the mountain.

"SELENAA!" A new blade came from the same point and severed the rope holding Selena to life, and one second later the young girl had disappeared, swallowed by shadows.

Victor's screams echoed all over the valley.

**- Selena -**

It was the strangest thing that had ever happened to me. It felt like every single piece of me was being separated from my body. I screamed and screamed all my throat could do, but the process didn't stop, and suddenly I felt like my whole self was becoming one with nothingness, my very essence being deconstructed.

And then, light appeared from what looked like the end of a tunnel, and as my stunned eyes stared -if I still had them- streams of light rushed to meet me, as if they too wanted to engulf me. I could only wonder what was going on, and thanks to that light, I saw that I still had my body, but it was covered with strange black ribbons that ended in what looked like tiny hands. I understood then that the little hands were carrying me towards the light.

Then the streams of light became wider, and I began to distinguish images on them, like it was my whole life painted on a stream of light, almost like the roll of a movie. I saw my father, showing me books, teaching me the basic processes. I saw my mother, baking a cake. I saw my teacher, showing me the butterfly kick. The images began to roll faster, and then the light at the end of a tunnel took form, a human form, the form of a boy. I reached out my hand.

"Please! Help me! Please!"

But as the boy turned around to look at me, there was a flash of white light, so white that it almost blinded me, and I shrieked as I felt my body being compressed by an enormous pressure.

But as soon as it came, it was gone. I opened my eyes. Everything was white.

Everything, except for the strange human-like silhouette sitting in front of me.

"Hello."

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_A/N: Sorry for the cliffie! Well, so what do you guys think of Selena? She is a bit of a prodigy, but then, in Fullmetal all characters are somewhat prodigies too. I mean, the Elric brothers, Mustang, Hawkeye, Winry, the Armstrongs, Izumi, they're all supertalented, aren't they?_

_I don't know. This is just a prologue, though. I have a lot of plot bunnies for this one, but do not expect it to be updated too regularly, it's just that with what Japanese, Law and Linguistics I'm pretty busy right now. College life, ugh. Besides, my writing is quite crappy and I'm a little embarrassed about this. I'm always afraid people will hate my writing or the storyline. I still have much to learn. Some day I'll be able to write a good story with great character development and perfect arcs, but for now, this is how I practice._

_Don't forget to review!_


	2. Chapter 1: Out of the Void

_Disclaimer: I don't own Fullmetal Alchemist nor any of its characters. _

_A/N: First of all, I need to thank my wonderful, amazing beta: RoseblossomWarrior. She also has an account here and aspires to be a writer. She is really good, you should go read her work. Her latest fanfic, Insomniacs, has one of the most interesting OCs I've ever read._

_And woohoo, I finally got this story rolling! You have no idea how many times I rewrote this scene. But I think I am sort of satisfied with how it turned out, and I do hope you like it._

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**Chapter One: Out of the Void**

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_"All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another." - Anatole France _

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**oo0- East City, Amestris, September of 1914 -0oo**

**- Selena -**

There are different kinds of silence. There's the momentary silence in a conversation, the silence at the other side of a telephone line; there's the deep majestic silence of the valleys between high mountains, and then there's the silence of the city. Cities aren't naturally silent, but anyone who lives in the outskirts of a big city knows that peaceful silence of a hot Sunday afternoon, when cars are only occasionally heard, and the chirping of the birds is the only thing that disturbs the quiet.

The first thing that invaded my mind when I regained consciousness was that awkward feeling that something was wrong, something had changed, but I couldn't quite put the finger on what it actually was. A heavy blackness seemed to weigh upon me, telling me to go back to sleep, almost as if I had been drugged, but as the sense of danger and urgency increased in my subconscious, I became aware that something was very, very wrong.

It was the realization that the silence around me had changed what finally flung me back into awareness, because up in the mountains, where I was, the chirp of the birds was rare and there certainly weren't any cars. The thought made me sit up with a gasp, but when I opened my eyes everything was dark. Not dark like a room in the dark or like a moonless night, but pitch dark, dark like that darkness Verne describes in Journey To The Center of The Earth, when Axel gets lost.

Dark like death.

Despair grabbed hold of me, as the faraway honk of a car brought me to the conclusion that I was not in the mountains anymore and that somehow I had, at least temporarily, lost my eyesight.

And where was my Dad?

"Dad?!" I called aloud, hoping against all odds to hear his reassuring voice again. If Dad was here, everything would somehow be alright.

But I was met with silence, that city-like silence. It seemed impossible that my Dad was not here with me. He always had the answers, his hand was always ready to catch mine, and I insisted, refusing to admit the fatal truth: I was alone. Not to mention blind and lost in an unknown city with hardly any idea of how I had arrived there. I bit my lip, trying to hold back the panic that was beginning to rise from my stomach.

"Dad, where are you?!"

I turned around 360 degrees, on my knees, looking for the faintest sign of hope, whether it came from hearing my Dad's breath or from finding some light. I even took my hands to my eyes, my fingers making sure my lids were open.

But all the evidence pointed at the worst possibility. There was also something bugging at the back of my conscience, like there was something important I was missing, but before I could concentrate on that, I heard sudden footsteps very close to me.

Instinctively, I turned towards the noise, hope resurging in my chest.

"Dad? Dad, is that you?"

But the cold voice that answered was nowhere near my father's.

"I am not your father."

**- Edward -**

Edward couldn't believe what his eyes were witnessing. He had been running down the maze of alleyways behind Central Command, his feet taking automatically the familiar path, his mind still trying to answer the questions Cornello's Stone had raised, Al tailing close nearby, when the cracks of alchemy coming from a side alleyway brought him to a stop.

He retraced his steps to the opening of the alleyway, not hearing the surprised "Brother?" call from Al.

As the young boys stared, the air over the back of the alley became filled with red lightnings and cracks, and a line in the air gave way to a huge eye that loomed over the pavement.

Edward's jaw dropped in shock when the black ribbons he had come to know so well, pulled a limp body from the eye, and dropped it unceremoniously on the floor. As quickly as it had appeared, the eye vanished, and the only sounds in the small alleyway were Ed's pitched breath, and the girl's.

Because now he could see clearly that it was a young girl, a teenager, probably, from the graceful shape of her body, framed by a curtain of long chocolate hair. As she stirred and then sat up, he froze, fascination giving way to alert.

Whoever this girl was, she had opened the Portal, for Ed could see no other reason for the huge eye to have spat her like that out of nowhere. And she had to be a powerful alchemist to have committed the taboo. No matter how innocent she looked, Ed decided, this girl could not be trusted.

But if he was hoping her to introduce herself through a stunning display of alchemy, he was sorely disappointed.

"Dad?"

Her soft call sounded much more like a lost little girl crying for her parents. As she turned around, Ed had to hold up a gasp of surprise when he saw the veil covering her caramel eyes. He understood then why she still retained her limbs: Truth had taken her eyesight instead.

"Dad, where are you?" she called again, apparently oblivious to the brothers' presence.

Edward took a few decisive steps towards her, and she turned to the noise, a glance of hope flashing through her unseeing eyes.

"Dad? Dad, is that you?"

"I am not your father," Ed replied sternly.

But as she looked straight at him without seeing him, Ed gasped. The girl bore a striking resemblance to someone he'd known very recently. Except for the pink bangs and the skin color, the girl looked like she could be Rose's younger sister. Behind him, Al gasped when he noticed it too.

"Then who are you?" came the logical response from her lips.

"My name is Edward Elric, and behind me is my brother Alphonse Elric. I am also known as the Fullmetal Alchemist, perhaps you've heard of me?" he probed tentatively. Rose had never mentioned a sister, but he could try after all, couldn't he?

The girl seemed to think for an instant.

"An alchemist, you say?"

"Yeah, a State Alchemist," Ed confirmed. "What's your name?"

The girl took a deep breath before speaking, almost as if she was trying to calm herself, but Ed's suspicious mood was on, and he ignored the trembling of her hands as she reached out her right one after standing up.

"I am Selena, pleased to meet you. Now would you mind telling me where exactly am I?"

"This is East City, right behind Eastern Command Center," Al supplied from behind him. Selena frowned at him, probably intrigued by the echo of his voice.

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"East City," Ed said, emphasizing every syllable. But she narrowed her eyes, and Ed read sudden distrust in her expression.

"What country is this?"

"Why, Amestris, of course," Ed said, as his own distrust grew even more. He could feel the air tensing up as he practically spat the next question. "Where are you from, anyway?"

She hesitated a second, which prompted Ed to doubt the veracity of her next words, whatever they were. "California, the United States of America."

"Cali-what?"

She must obviously be lying, Ed had never heard of such a place. But why would she make up a nonexistent country? Either she was too stupid or she was trying to gain some time until she could make up a valid excuse. Ed almost gasped when a dangerous idea came to his mind. What if she was a spy from Drachma?

As it was in his brash nature, his suspicions drew him to action. He stepped back and adopted a stance. This girl may be blind but who knew how dangerous she could be?

Selena, on her part, frowned, and tilted her head a little, as if trying to determine what was going on from the sounds of Ed's clothes as he moved. But it became obvious that she did not trust them, either. Her hands continued to tremble as she clenched her fists.

"Where is my father?" she demanded suddenly, in an angry hiss.

"I wouldn't know, since the only one who came out of the Portal was you," Ed replied aggressively. He was pleased to notice that that piece of information confused the stranger girl, as she blinked several times with a look of perplexity on her pretty face.

"The Portal? What are you-" she interrupted herself at mid-speech, and as her face went pale as a ghost, she stumbled backwards. "Something… something happened to me… someone took me… and there was light… and then darkness…"As she spoke, she gave a few steps back until her back was against the wall at the end of the alleyway. She looked up at them, her blind eyes suddenly glimmering, her voice shaky, almost a whisper. "What… what happened to me?"

Ed clenched his teeth. The girl seemed to be clearly traumatized, and for the first time he considered the idea that she might have been shoved into something she did not know enough about. But she must have taken part in the transmutation! Why else would she have paid the toll?

Before both Elrics' disbelieving eyes, Selena sank her face between her hands, and slid down the wall to a crouching position, before hugging her knees.

_A scared little girl crying for her parents._

It was when her shoulders began to shake that the spell seemed to break over the youngest Elric, as Al stepped forward, always the one to dash forward to help people in need.

"Is that the last thing you remember?"

The girl looked up, startled at the sound of Al's armor for a moment, and then despair took hold of her again and she hugged her knees. Ed was surprised to see her face was dry. He would have thought she'd be crying now, but if anything, she seemed to exert a tight control over tears, which did not help her gain Ed's trust.

"I was with my Dad… hiking in the mountains… Oh God, my Dad!" She looked up, a hint of panic in her voice, and she stood up again, aiming to walk, but her condition forced her to reach out her hands, in a pathetic gesture, and that convinced Ed that at least blindness she had definitely not expected. "I have to find my Dad… there was an avalanche… and I slipped. My Dad caught the rope, and I was safe, but then…" She shook her head lightly, like a child trying to get rid of a nightmare after Mom's arms have brought safety back, and she felt the wall at her back, using it as guide to find the adjacent walls. As she talked she started to move towards them. "Whatever it was that took me, it must have knocked me out, cause the next thing I know I'm lost and blind in an unknown city with two alchemists, out of all people!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Ed spotted Al aiming to go and help her, and he stopped him with one arm and a warning glance of caution. Alphonse stared at him for a second, and then decided to stay still. But that didn't stop him from talking, to Ed's chagrin.

"Well, if your Dad was in danger, we can report him to Briggs Fort to make sure they find him," he suggested.

"You could?" she asked, hope visible in her caramel-white eyes.

Ed gave his little brother a grin.

"Yeah! If you just tell us where exactly he was, we can report it!" Ed said enthusiastically, sure that that was Al's plan. If she was indeed an innocent girl plunged into something unknown, then she would give clear references and her father would be found. Otherwise, she would expose herself as a liar and possible Drachman spy.

She frowned in concentration, her right hand still against the wall. "It was a hiking circuit in the Alps… I don't remember the name, but the mountain was… something about a horn…" Ed and Al exchanged puzzled glances. Hiking in the Briggs mountains? Who would be crazy enough to do that? "Matterhorn! Yeah, I think that was the mountain. Please, I need to know he's okay, and if the avalanche was bad, as it looked like, there must have been a report somewhere!"

Ed frowned again. Although he'd never heard of the place, and he was fairly sure the Briggsmen wouldn't let any jacko get lost and die up there –especially if he carried along a teenage daughter-, her clothes were made of a material he had never seen, which seemed specially designed for protection against harsh weather. That was definitely a point in favor of her story, and her look of despair made his conviction begin to shatter. Should they believe her story or not?

As every time he was unsure about something, he looked at Al. His brother stared at him for a moment and then nodded shortly. Ed understood without any need of words. They would give her the benefit of the doubt. That, at least, until Colonel Roy Mustang decided if she was trustworthy or not.

**- Selena -**

I waited in the darkness for an answer from any of them. In the meantime, I tried to pay attention to the sounds around me. If there was any grain of truth in what these men had told me, I was indeed in a city, as I could detect from the sounds of cars not too far away and the faint buzz of people.

The questions kept piling up in my mind, and being blind did not help. What was this city I had landed myself in? Who had taken me here and what had happened with them? Where was Dad? And who were these men who had been watching me as I awoke?

I tried with all my might to force my brain to suppress the panic, like my teacher had taught me all those years ago when he had blindfolded me for the first time. _Trust your other senses, Selena, that's why you have them. One by one, ask them, what do they feel?_

I could rule out taste because all I felt in my mouth was a faint taste of blood, but that was from before losing consciousness, when I was hanging over the abyss. I had bitten my tongue on the fall, and even though I could still feel the scar on it, the taste of blood had almost gone away. But that wouldn't help me understand my current situation, so I moved on to the next sense.

Nose. What did I smell? I could feel, other than my own sweat, the strong odour of rotting garbage. That meant that I was either in a dump site, or, more likely, in a back alleyway, if this city was anything similar to Los Angeles. The smell of urine and garbage was pretty intense in some of the dirtiest corners of my natal city, since it was where the garbage cans were stationed. This idea agreed with my discovery of the two walls close to me, one at my back and the other adjacent to it. One of them, then, had to be the alleyway's end.

If it was the first, -which seemed likely since the air appeared to be slightly purer the closer I got to the other end- then that meant that the two men standing in front of me were blocking the exit. They would probably stop me anyway if I tried to run, and, let's be honest, how far would I make it without my eyesight to guide me?

For good or bad, now I was stuck with Edward and Alphonse, whoever they were.

The matter brought the question back to my mind. Who were they? In order to keep the panic that was still bubbling in my stomach away, and also the images that kept flashing through my mind of my Dad buried beneath tons of snow, I forced my brain to try to infer something about them from what they had said or done.

The first thing I had noticed, was that the first man's voice, Edward's, was… peculiar, to say the least. He seemed to drag some consonants, and his voice had a leathery edge to it, but his not so deep pitch –and specially the height from where the voice seemed to come- allowed me to guess he was probably not a grown man. I wouldn't think he was older than 20 years old.

The other man's voice was the weirdest I had ever heard. There was an echo to it that made me think of those days, many years ago, when my Dad and I played with a long cord and two tin cans, using them as walkie talkies. It was my Dad's way of teaching me the basic physics of sound. And Alphonse's voice sounded just like he was talking from the other end of a tin can line. Not to mention his high pitch, which made his voice sound eerily childish.

As a sudden noise called my attention, the mystery of Alphonse's voice gave way to something even more alarming. What were those metallic noises that came every now and then from right in front of me? The alchemists must be aware of what it was, but I couldn't tell, and I blinked furiously in frustration, almost as if by blinking I would force my eyes to see again.

"Alright" Edward said determinedly, like he had come to a decision. "We'll take you to Eastern Command to report that your father is missing in the mountains."

I nodded as I swallowed hard, again trying to contain my boiling fear. There was no guarantee he was telling the truth. But whatever happened to me, I needed to trust him in order to make sure Dad was ok. That was the top priority now, and no matter how hard I racked my brains for an alternative, there simply was no way I'd be able to help him on my own, so Edward was the only choice. I heard steps walking away from me, and I tried to follow, but being blind didn't make it easy.

"Hold on!" I begged as I used the wall to guide me forward. The steps stopped, and as I rushed to get to the owner of those feet, I stumbled with something on the ground and fell forward.

But before my nose got smashed against the ground, there was a metallic sound in front of me and something hard appeared before my stomach, preventing my fall. As I placed my left hand against it to push myself up again, I noticed it was cylindrical and cold.

"Are you okay?" Alphonse's voice said very close to me, and my first instinct was to protect my personal space, moving away from his voice, but then the thing I was leaning my weight on, the cylindrical thing, moved. I removed my hand instantly, with a gasp, and Alphonse's kind voice laughed kindly near my ear. "It's okay, that's my arm."

"Your…-" No way. That thing was too big to be a human arm, and too cold. If I could give my fingers any credit, that was polished steel. "But that's steel."

Suddenly, Alphonse sounded uncomfortable. "Uh… yeah… I know… You see, this is gonna sound weird, but I wear a suit of armor."

"A suit of armor?!" I couldn't believe my ears, but it certainly made sense. All the strange metallic noises found an explanation now. It had been his costume. As the sounds came to my ears again, I could easily see how they fit. It sounded exactly like when you lifted an armor's arm, as the plates rubbed against each other. His voice also made sense now, echoing from inside the armor. But why would a kid wear a suit of armor? I was too confused to remember manners now, and I spluttered the question before I realized it was utterly rude. "Why do you wear a suit of armor?"

I could almost sense the embarrassment in his voice as he stammered. "Uh…"

"Well… you see…" Edward added behind him, and as his voice faded away the silence became uncomfortable. Only then did I notice my indiscretion, and the heat rose to my face.

"Oh God, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to… It's none of my business. Sorry."

Alphonse laughed. "It's okay. You're not the first to be surprised. Nice to meet you, Selena."

I reached out my hand awkwardly, and as the plates clattered again, something touched my hand. My fingers probed over the rubber-like thing, and after discovering its form, I realized that was his hand. It was too big for a human, and I felt a flash of pity for the boy inside the armor, whatever was the reason that forced him to stay in there. Who knew, maybe he had an infectious disease, and his way to hide it was to stay inside that big and heavy armor. His kind voice reinforced the impression that he had somehow been victim of a terrible fate, and I felt compelled to trust him, although my brain dictated that I should trust no one until I found my Dad.

"Nice to meet you, Alphonse."

"Call me Al."

A warm smile spread on my face, and for some reason, I was sure he was smiling inside the armor, too.

"Well, well, now that introductions have been made, can we be on our way?," came the impatient voice of Edward behind Alphonse, and his urgency reminded me of mine.

"Right," I agreed, and again searched for the wall to feel my way towards the exit of the alleyway, but Alphonse's hand found mine.

"I'll lead you. I won't let you fall, don't worry."

My skeptical nature doubted it, still suspicious as to their sudden disposition to help me, but I said nothing. I had never been one for manners, I didn't care about them, but my Mom always insisted that when you met someone new, there were some formalities that were expected, like, for example, you didn't tell the person guiding you that you didn't trust them. There was also the fact that I –and my Dad's safety- depended on these young men for the time being, and if being rude or distant meant my Dad dying in the mountains, I'd be a princess for all that mattered.

As Alphonse's hand helped me forward, Edward's firm steps leading the way a few feet ahead, I sent a silent prayer for my Dad.

_Dad, hold on, I'm bringing the cavalry to help you._

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_A/N: So there goes! The first chapter of this story! I'm already working on the next chapter, so maybe I'll upload it in a couple days. Like I said in the prologue, it's highly likely that the updates won't be very regular, since I still have some exams to take. But hopefully I'll have more time on December, after I'm done with my tests._

_Thank you for reading and don't forget to review!_


	3. Chapter 2: Stranger in a Strange Land

_Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist nor any of its characters._

_A/N: Once again I need to thank my beta RoseBlossomWarrior for her tips and corrections on the first part of this chapter. Seriously, what would I be without you, Rose? :)_

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**Chapter 2: Stranger in a Strange Land**

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_"But a stranger in a strange land, he is no one: men know him not- and to know not is to care not for." Jonathan Swift._

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**- Selena -**

"Brother, hold on!"

The quick patter of Edward's steps in front of me had accelerated, each step sounding louder, almost as if he was jumping. And before I had time to realize that his steps also sounded like they were coming from higher ground, Alphonse's voice provided the explanation.

"It's a staircase. I'll help you out."

Stubborn as I was, I paid no heed to his supporting hand, and instead, I probed the ground around me with my foot. Naturally, it soon hit something hard, and when I lifted it to test Alphonse's words, I found solid pavement to step on. Right, it was a staircase. Later I would remember this moment and understand that Al had absolutely no reason for lying, but at the moment, I had decided I wouldn't trust anything they said that did not point immediately towards the rescue of my father. The circumstances of my appearance here seemed to me suspicious enough already. Hadn't it been because Dad needed me and believing these two was our only hope, I would have turned around and gone away right then and there.

I climbed the stairs then, carefully at first, moving each foot forward until it hit the step, and then moving it up until the obstacle disappeared. But when Edward's huffs of impatience somewhere above me became too loud I forced myself to hurry, almost toppling over a couple times. To my chagrin, twice it was Alphonse's hand what prevented my fall.

Before I had even reached the top, Edward's steps hurried away, with a mutter of "I don't have time for this."

"I'm sorry about Brother. That's just the way he is," Alphonse explained.

But I wanted to get this situation settled as much as Edward did. "No, he's right. My dad doesn't have time for this, either." With those words I climbed the remaining steps and ran forward, thinking, _the hell with my blindness_. I wasn't counting on the building having a quite solid door, though.

The collision caused me to fall flat on my butt, and I shook my head slightly, momentarily dazzled. Alphonse laughed softly behind me, in a gentle manner, as his armor clattered closer.

"I could have helped you, you know."

I said nothing, and rubbed my hurting nose, only to find some dense liquid dripping over my face.

"What the-"

A sudden suspicion invaded my mind, and I swiftly stuck out my tongue to taste the liquid, almost sure of the embarrassing answer. Yep, it was blood.

"Oh, you've hurt yourself." Alphonse's voice sounded slightly concerned, and my mind suddenly understood how ridiculous the situation must have looked like. Ordinarily, I wasn't used to laughing when other people had accidents, but I realized that I must have looked pretty stupid. For an instant I wondered why Alphonse wasn't laughing out loud at me. I could only guess he was just gentler than most people. "You shouldn't have run after Brother like that."

Of course, he was right, which didn't make me feel better. My dad needed urgent help and here I was, ramming my stubborn head into a solid door. A sudden flash of anger at myself made me frown, and I pushed Alphonse's hand away when his hand touched my face. I stood up, wiping my hands on my clothes. Mom would have screamed in outrage at me staining my clothes with blood, but I thought my clothes had never been less important.

"I'm fine. Now could you please take me with Edward?"

"But you can't walk around bleeding like that!"

As little as I cared about that now, at one point he was right. Something had to be done about my nose. I took my hands to my face and touched the bridge of my nose, flinching at the sensation. It didn't seem to be broken, thankfully. I wiped my face with my sleeve, avoiding another wince and trying to remember which way the door was. If Alphonse wasn't going to take me to Edward, then I would do it myself.

After deciding to walk forward until I touched something, I gave a few tentative steps, with my hands reached out in front of me, quite like the caricature of a mummy, I thought. I felt stupid, but for the umpteenth time I reminded myself that it didn't matter what happened to me right now.

"Are you gonna take much longer?" Edward's voice came from a point situated in front of me, a little to the right. "Oh, you… Don't tell me. You crashed flat against the door," he added, the hint of a mocking smile in his voice.

I didn't have time for _this_.

"Are you going to help me or do I have to find someone else?" I snapped.

I was met with silence for a few seconds. Then there was a creak.

"This way."

I walked forward, with my hands out again, since after the pretty harsh collision, I'd rather look like an idiot than end up breaking my damn nose for real. But a hand closed around my wrist and pulled me forward. I gasped in surprise, but clearly, it was just Edward.

"Brother, wait up!"

Edward, however, seemed to be done waiting for me, because his hand dragged me forward over several hallways, until I lost count of our steps, which echoed down the corridors. I also lost count of the people we crossed along our path. Some of them said something to Edward, and some simply gasped, but no one seemed to object to his odd behavior or to his presence there. That led me to believe he was indeed famous as he had hinted when he asked me if I had heard of him, or at least he was well known here. But what still wasn't clear in my mind was where exactly we were. He and Alphonse had said they would take me to report to the Briggs Fort. I don't know what I had expected when they said "Fort", but this building seemed enormous and it was also in the middle of the city, as far as I could tell. Just when I was about to snatch my hand away from Edward's and demand an explanation, he stopped. Due to the inertia, I could not stop that easily, and I would have collided against him if it wasn't for something hard that crashed against my left shoulder. With a faint "Ow!" I went to rub my shoulder.

Great was my surprise when I found something cold and cylindrical holding my shoulder back. Before my fingers had any chance of touching that thing so that I could understand what it was, it pulled away. A gruesome suspicion arose inside of me when I heard, for the first time, a very soft clatter, like Alphonse's armor, but gentler.

"Do you wear a suit of armor too?"

"'course not, what a ridiculous question!" was the annoyed response. "I wear automail."

The term confused me even more. "Automail? What is that?"

With a huff of annoyance, Edward stepped away from me.

"Wait!" I said, reaching out my hand. My fingers crashed against something hard and cold, and before he had the chance to snatch it away, I grabbed it with both hands. My fingers quickly traced the contour of the metallic object to find it was a hand, and I couldn't hold back a soft gasp of surprise. But a human hand, warm and soft, placed itself over my fingers, and gently pulled them away.

"I know my automail arm may seem interesting, but if you want details, you're gonna have to ask my mechanic about it."

"Then it's just one arm? Who are you, Luke Skywalker?"

Again I was met with stunned silence. Oh, come on! He must have picked my Star Wars pun. Everyone on Earth knew Star Wars. Even I, who despised movies and television, knew about Star Wars. They were my dad's favorite movies, and I had made them an exception to my no-TV rule for him.

Edward's hiss was thick with suspicion. "Who's Luck Skywalker?"

I stifled a giggle at his odd pronunciation of the name, although the fact that he had no idea what I was talking about alarmed me more than I dared admit to myself.

"Never mind. So you have a mechanic arm, and Alphonse wears a suit of armor. Just who are you two?"

Edward gave a short intake of breath, and before a second had passed, I heard his steps going away and the creak of a door opening. Had he just… left me there?

"Well, hello, Edward," a female voice said a little further, inside what I guessed was a room, since her voice didn't have the slight echo our voices had had in the place where I was standing now.

"Is he here?" Edward spat.

"Yes, he is waiting for you."

"As usual, the bastard," he grumbled in a low voice.

This whole exchange was extremely confusing to me. "He" was obviously the man we were here to see, the man that supposedly was going to help me find my father, or to whom we were to make the report, at least. And the woman could have been his secretary or something, but that didn't shed any light on the issue of what the hell this building was, or how this was supposed to help my dad.

The clatter of Alphonse's armor snapped me out of my astonishment, as it sounded much louder than before. Once I paid attention to the noise, I realized his steps were much faster, and I almost gasped when it hit me: he was running. A small part of my brain was amused at how hard it was for me to understand the simplest things. But without my eyesight, I would have to make do with my other senses. Even so, I reflected, it would have been much worse if I hadn't had so much practice with my research and my martial arts training. I sent a silent "thank you" to my teacher for making me train blindfolded. It was almost as if Fate had known what would happen to me and wanted me to get prepared.

"Oh, there you are!"

"Alphonse, what is this? Where are we? Who is Edward talking to?"

Alphonse's clatter slowed down and then came to a stop at my side.

"This is Eastern Command Center, and we're right outside Colonel Mustang's office."

That word rang a bell of caution in my brain. _Colonel?_ This didn't sound good. I was no expert in matters of the world, I was more of a lab geek, but even I knew that the military of other countries could be pretty dangerous. _I should have gone straight to a consulate!_, I scolded myself. But now it was too late. All I could do was hope that this Colonel would want to help me.

**- Edward -**

He barged in the office like he always did, and just like always, he was met with Mustang's annoying smirk.

"Why, hello, Fullmetal. What gives? I heard you made a racket at Liore."

Edward was in no mood to deal with his puns.

"Cut the crap, Mustang. I have something serious to talk with you."

"Like what happened to your brother? He didn't come in with you like always. Did he have a little problem?"

As expected, Edward burst out ranting.

"WHO YOU CALLING A TINY LITTLE PIPSQUEAK?!"

Mustang grinned, and opened his mouth to reply, probably with another pun, but then his face became serious, and Ed turned around to see Al leading the blind girl in.

"This is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about. This is Selena," Edward said as he walked towards the girl and then dragged her forward from her forearm, bringing her closer to Mustang's desk.

"Hello, um… sir," the girl said shyly, looking down. Ed saw Mustang gasp when he noticed the veil over her eyes. He took a second to study her features, and then turned to Edward, one eyebrow raised.

"And may I ask why did you bring your girlfriend to see me?"

Both Edward and Selena's cheeks turned a deep shade of red.

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND! She's just a girl we found under extremely suspicious circumstances, and I thought it best to bring her to you," Ed explained. Selena turned to him, her face suddenly paling when she understood what he was saying.

"You said you were going to help me," she accused in a whisper.

"If you're telling the truth, then we'll help you. If not… well, Mustang will decide what to do with you."

Her upper lip trembled at the realization. "You never believed me on the first place."

Edward turned to Mustang. "We were on our way here when I heard alchemy taking place. A Portal opened up and spat her out-"

Mustang's eyes widened as he gasped, and the air suddenly became very tense, his voice taking a threatening tone that Edward knew and didn't like. "A Portal? You're not talking about _The_ Portal, are you?"

"I think that's exactly what happened. This girl took part in a human transmutation, and her eyesight was the toll-"

Mustang flared up even quicker than Ed had expected. His fists slammed against the wooden table as he stood up, startling the skinny girl standing in front of him. The Colonel's black eyes pierced Selena's, and an instant later he leaned over the desk to grip at the girl's collar.

"Why did you perform human transmutation?!," he demanded, evident rage twisting his features. Ed stared at him, impressed in spite of himself. The last time he had seen Mustang this furious was when he had found Edward on a wheelchair after visiting their house. "ANSWER ME!" he yelled in the girl's face.

"Colonel!"

The shout did not come from any of the brothers, who were still too shocked to react, but from Lieutenant Hawkeye, who appeared at the door and ran forward, past Edward. She placed a calming hand on Mustang's arm, and gave him a stern look.

"Colonel," she called again. It took Mustang a few seconds, but he turned to look at her, and the flame of wrath Ed had seen in his eyes reduced to glowing embers. He let go of Selena's collar, but Hawkeye's hand immediately shot out to hold her arm, in order to prevent her from running away.

It was unnecessary, anyway, for the girl seemed so shocked she could barely move, her shoulders shaking. Edward figured she was on the brink of breaking down, but again, he was surprised at not seeing any tears in her blind eyes. Her face shouted panic and shock, although. Her eyes were wide, eyebrows curved outwards, lips pressed together, throat tight, her torso was stiff and her hands clenched in fists. Edward realized with a gasp that her expression was almost the same as Winry's when she cried, but without tears.

"She has no idea about what happened."

Al's voice made everyone turn to look at him, except naturally for the blind girl.

"How do you know, Al?" Mustang asked, suspicion burning inside his black eyes.

But Alphonse walked forward and placed a gigantic hand over the shaking girl's shoulder.

"Tell him what you told us."

But Selena did not pronounce a word. Her throat seemed to be constricted, arms tense, fists clenched, and Ed realized she was using all the energy in her body to prevent herself from breaking down. In spite of himself, he felt a flash of pity for her.

"Maybe we should give her a second," he suggested, hating himself for it. If she was indeed a spy, they were only giving her time to make her story up. But the more Edward stared at her, the less convinced he was that she was a spy.

For not the first nor the last time, she reminded him of a lost and scared little girl, looking for her parents.

Mustang leaned back and sat at his chair again, placing the tips of his fingers beneath his chin as he studied Selena's visage, the flame in his eyes latent, waiting for the most minimal provocation to light up a dangerous fire.

"Very well. You have exactly one minute to start talking."

**- Selena -**

Restrain was proving to be very difficult to achieve at this point. I could feel my shoulders shaking and my lips trembling, and I felt at the brink of emotional collapse. It had been a major shock to find out that Edward had never believed my story and had brought me here only to be interrogated by this Colonel.

The horror and shock did not let me focus on what was important, as the questions and painful realizations flooded my head, making me dizzy. It seemed like five minutes ago I was just climbing in the mountains with my dad, and suddenly my whole world had turned upside down. How had this happened? How had my life been suddenly flushed down the toilet? How could I have lost my dad? It seemed hard to believe, especially when I couldn't see what was going on. How could I have landed myself with two young men that called themselves alchemists? There weren't even alchemists anymore! And Edward had just accused me of doing a human transmutation. Of course, I knew what a transmutation was, in theory, from my Granddad's papers, but it was just a theory! No one had ever performed a successful transmutation as such! And a human transmutation, out of all?! How could they possibly believe someone like me would do something like that? I was blind, for heaven's sake! I couldn't even draw a transmutation circle! For the life of me that I could not see any reason why I would be anything else than what I claimed to be: A lost girl looking for her father.

There had to be a way of making them believe me. But I had explained myself already and it didn't seem to have made any difference in Edward's mind. That was something else I found no explanation for. What had made him think I had performed human transmutation? What could have happened that had convinced him of something like that? He had mentioned a Portal, several times, but I had absolutely no idea what that meant. If only I had finished reading my Granddad's research! He had, indeed, mentioned a Portal of some sort, I recalled, but he hadn't explained it, saying instead that he was saving that theory for last.

Anyway, right now, I needed to focus on the most important matter. Dad.

_Focus, Selena, focus._

In order to save my father, I needed to convince this Colonel something that I was telling the truth. What could I do to make him believe me? Maybe if I cried they would see how shocked I really was. Too bad that wouldn't work. I hadn't shed a single tear since my parents had divorced.

I could still remember that night crystal clear. It was after Mom had moved out. I was very little then, and I just couldn't understand why she had left like that. Was it something that I'd done? She had promised that nothing would change between us, that I would still see her every weekend, that I could call her whenever I wanted and that maybe later we could spend even more time together. We would also spend the holidays together and she said she'd be there whenever I needed her. She had said it would be almost the same as before, and that I should just think she was at work.

But I had known in my heart it would never be the same. She wouldn't be there to tug me to sleep every night, she wouldn't be sleeping next door, she wouldn't sing while preparing my breakfast anymore. My family was breaking apart and I couldn't understand why. She had cried that day, and I had hated myself for it, because it seemed obvious to me that I was the reason of her tears. I had always hated to see Mommy cry.

That night, after she had closed the door behind her, wiping her face with her sleeve as she shut the door, Dad had taken me to bed, tugged me and told me a bedtime story to make me fall asleep, but I couldn't sleep. I knew everything would be different from that night on. And I cried after he went to sleep.

He had appeared a few minutes later, barging through the door, and sitting right next to me on the bed. I had been shocked to see tears on his face as well. My dad, the strong man, the scientist, the cold, logical man, the same man who had smiled to me my entire life, was crying.

"Please, Selena, don't cry," he had begged me. And I complied, of course, because it was again I who made him cry. I was the reason it all had broken apart. It had always been me.

That day was the last day I shed any tears. Ever on, whenever I was feeling sad, lonely, frustrated or upset, I would remember the promise I'd made to him, and I had kept it throughout my entire life. Up until this point.

Now I wished I could cry, because maybe showing my emotions would give me more credibility before these men's eyes. But I had suppressed tears for so long that now they simply wouldn't come. It was almost as if my eyes had lost the function of crying besides seeing.

Anyway, it was pointless to think about that in my present situation, I told myself. If I couldn't cry, I just couldn't and it was stupid to keep wasting precious time in wistful thinking. What I needed to do right now was to focus, control my feelings, stay steady and find some logical reason that would convince them that my story was real. _Logic beats sentimentality_, like Dad used to say. So I began by trying to control my breath, which had hitched up by now, to a point close to hiccups. I focused on the feel of Alphonse's heavy hand on my shoulder. My teacher had taught me that it was always helpful to find one thing to concentrate upon to control your feelings, closing your mind to everything else, and once more, it worked. A few seconds later, my breath had eased down and my powerful emotions had ceased to twirl around my head. Cool logic took hold of my thoughts, but even then I couldn't find a special reason that would make them believe me.

"Well?" the Colonel's voice interrupted my chain of thoughts.

For good or bad, it was time to start talking. If anything, I should start from the very beginning.

"My name is Selena Richardson. I am the granddaughter of Nobel-prize chemist Jace Richardson, I am sure you've heard of him."

"No, I haven't."

Great. Another element of credibility, lost.

"Anyway, I am a chemist, just like my father and my grandfather. I understand the brothers here call themselves alchemists," which still didn't make sense to me but whatever. "My grandfather called himself an alchemist as well, but I am not. As much as I wished to be able to perform transmutations, I cannot. And I have _not_ performed a human transmutation. As I explained to Edward and Alphonse, I was hiking in the mountains with my father, when the earth shook and I realized we were on the path of an upcoming avalanche. In the midst of it, I slipped and fell over the ledge. My father managed to catch the rope, and I was hanging over the abyss. Then…" I hesitated, because my story had gotten to the part where things got messed up. I took a deep breath and forced myself to continue. "Something happened to me. I can't remember what. I only remember flashes of alternating darkness and light, and the next thing I knew, I was lying on the ground, unable to see. That was when Edward and Alphonse found me. I explained to them that I need to help my dad, because he probably got caught up in the avalanche, and they said that we could make a report so someone would go help him out. I followed their lead because they promised to help me, but they brought me here instead."

I could not help the accusing tone in my voice, but it didn't have any effect on the Colonel, it seemed.

"Hmm. It sounds like you may unknowingly have gotten caught up in a human transmutation. But you just admitted to knowing what a human transmutation is."

"Yes, I do, but only from my Grandfather's paperwork."

"And Edward, you claim she's lying."

"Well, she mentioned a bunch of things that made no damn sense to me. She said she is from another country, so I became immediately suspicious of her."

The Colonel turned to me again. "You are not from Amestris?"

_Dúh._

"No, sir, I am not."

"And where are you from then?"

"I am from the United States of America."

"And where is that?"

"Uh…" I would never have believed that someone who was enrolled in a country's military wouldn't know about the USA. Not that I was being arrogant, but we were in diplomatic contact with almost all the countries in the world, and even if I had never heard of this one, they must know about us. "In… In America, sir. Below Canada and over Mexico."

"I have never heard of such places."

My surprise grew even more. Where the hell did this people live? What was this, the Tibet? Even those monks knew about us! "American" was a word used in every country of the world!

"The continent… America, sir." The silence made panic rise in my stomach again. "Uh… well then, what _do_ you know? Europe? Asia? Australia? Africa? You must know some other country!"

"You're not making any sense. The countries around us are Drachma, Creta and Aerugo, Xing on the West beyond the desert."

"Creta? Do you mean the island of Creta?"

"No. The country of Creta. And there are no islands around here since we're not even close to the ocean."

"Uh… I don't know. If you have no ocean nearby… it can only be Asia. If so, then you should know about China? Russia? Afghanistan? India?"

The situation was becoming weirder and weirder every time. I had a sudden suspicion.

"This is not a TV joke show, is it?"

I was almost half hoping to get the line my dad's grad students used to shout to each other when they made pranks. _You got punk'd!_

But Colonel whatever seemed to flare up at the mere suggestion.

"Does this look like a joke to you, young lady?!"

I gasped at the tone of his voice, and unwillingly stepped back, intimidated, but the hand of the woman on my right arm prevented me from going further back.

"Uh… no, sir!"

He sighed, and there was a second of silence before he shot the next question at me.

"So where were you when this happened?"

"I was in the mountains, sir. The Alps, near the Switzerland border. We were doing a climbing circuit on Matterhorn Mount."

"I have never heard of such places."

Alphonse's voice interrupted. "We thought it might be somewhere in the Briggs mountains."

"I don't think so. I don't recall any place named Alps or Matterhorn."

"And I don't think so, either, since you're telling me this is not even Europe," I added.

The fear was burning deep in my stomach now. If I was nowhere near Europe, not only did I urgently need to find where the hell I was and how I had gotten here, but this whole thing would be useless to my dad. There was no way these people could help him.

"Sir, would you mind asking someone else? I…" I interrupted myself. How could I phrase this without being rude? But my dad's safety was on the line, so I had to hurry. Being polite wouldn't exactly serve for anything right now. "Maybe someone else does know the places I'm talking about…"

As I had expected, he did not take it nicely. "Are you calling me an ignorant?!"

"Colonel," the soft voice of the woman beside me warned him.

I bit my lower lip, and tried to control the pitch of my voice, as well as my nerves. "I am not, by all means, insulting you, sir. But my father is stuck in a really bad situation and he needs help as soon as possible. I need to send someone to assist him or he's going to die up there."

"But where are we going to send anybody, if you claim to come from very faraway lands? Besides, it's not like we've never sent emissaries to countries beyond Drachma or Creta, and I have never heard of the places you mentioned."

Then where on the planet was I?

My voice betrayed a hint of panic in my following words. "Is this even planet Earth?"

There was a loud gasp behind me.

"What did you say?" Edward asked.

"Is it not planet Earth?" My shock could only grow. What the **_hell_**?

"Yes, it is, but…" as his voice faded away I held back a sigh of relief. Thank goodness.

"What's in your mind, Fullmetal?" the Colonel addressed him.

Edward made a weird "tcha!" sound before speaking. "There have been theories… I always thought it was stupid, but you did cross the Portal after all. Maybe… maybe they were right."

"What theories?" the Colonel insisted, "Mind explaining yourself?"

"There have been theories claiming that this may not be the only dimension of the world."

There was a collective gasp from everyone except for me… until I realized what he was hinting at.

"You mean I am in an alternate dimension? Like… like the strings theory?"

I was not very familiar with the strings theory, because I thought it a little far fetched, but my father was a faithful believer in it, and we had discussed the basics of it many times.

"Strings? What strings? What are you talking about?" The Colonel didn't seem to follow, so I explained.

"There is a theory, in physics, that claims that the world we know is only one dimension of the universe. It postulates, basically, that there are infinite parallel dimensions, happening at the same time, and that we exist in a number of them. The idea is that the space time is constantly changing, those dimensions colliding with each other, and the decisions that we make are only one possibility of the whole. There are countless versions of ourselves making different decisions, with infinite alternate possibilities." I turned to Edward. "But a completely different dimension in a completely different world is more difficult to believe."

Edward stuttered for a moment, and as the rest of the people around me did the same, I realized I had confused them even more. But my brain was on its wheels again, considering more possibilities as I spoke.

"Maybe it's not even about the strings theory. Maybe it was a worm-hole in space-time. I never believed in those things, you know what they say, _'don't believe in what you can't see'_, but so many things have happened that have no explanation that I really don't know what to believe anymore. And that would agree with the whole Portal thing you've been talking about. Maybe I did cross a worm-hole."

My technical rant was met with stunned silence.

"Uh… well… what I meant to say was…" Edward began, still apparently confused by everything I'd said, but his voice became firmer as he began to explain. "There have been theories about other worlds existing in alternate dimensions. And if she crossed the Portal, then maybe it's possible that she came from an alternate world, where all the things she mentioned do exist."

"It sounds a little far-fetched to me," the Colonel said skeptically.

"Trust me, I'm more bewildered than you here," I chimed in. "If it's hard to believe for you, imagine what it must be like for me, not being able to confirm it with my own eyes." I sighed. "Maybe this is all just a bad nightmare and I'll wake up any second at my house, safe in my bed."

"Unfortunately, I don't think so," Alphonse said with a hint of sadness in his echo-y voice.

The room became silent once again after his words, everyone probably reflecting on what had been discussed. Was it really possible? Were these people just lying to me? For a moment I wondered if I had actually gone insane. Maybe this was all just a delusion. But the heavy hand on my left shoulder and the firm one on my right arm felt too real to ignore. And I could hear the breathing of four people audibly enough. Wait, four? Shouldn't Alphonse be breathing too inside his armor? What's more, his breath should be even more audible, since the armor would make it resonate inside. Yet, I could hear absolutely no noise coming from him. Once I had read somewhere that it is impossible to be completely still for long periods of time, since the human body is not used to that, and soreness is almost immediate. And still, Alphonse was standing there, wearing a heavy suit of armor, not moving in the slightest and not even breathing.

I didn't realize I myself was holding my breath in astonishment until I released it.

Great, just great, add one more to the list of mysteries I didn't think I would ever be able to solve.

But my mind reminded me of the most urgent matter. Dad. How was I going to help him if I had landed myself in a different world? And besides, something of what had been said suddenly came back to me, raising another question.

"Excuse me," I began, and I could almost hear everyone turning to look at me. Alphonse, at least, did, according to my ears. "When you say you're alchemists, and you talk about transmutations, do you mean you can actually perform them?"

"Why, yes, of course," Edward answered, his voice betraying his surprise, until he understood where I was getting at. "Wait, you mean in your world alchemy… does not work?"

I ignored the twinge of uneasiness that gave me the fact that Edward had just called the world "your world", as if he had already admitted that this one was _not_ my world.

"Exactly. My Grandfather called himself an alchemist, but he only studied the theories. No one has ever done a transmutation. It's believed to be some sort of magic thing…"

"But without alchemy, how do you manage to do things?" Alphonse's curious voice asked. As general as his question sounded, I understood what he meant, even though what he was implying seemed weird as hell to me. That alchemy did everything in this world.

"We have physics and chemistry, which evolved from alchemy. We chemists study the properties of the elements, and do research in order to find new uses to them. Nanotechnology has proven to be the latest major advance on both fields."

"Nano-what?" This time it was Edward who spat the question. I dismissed it with a wave of my hand.

"Never mind. The thing is, if alchemy doesn't work in my world, how could I have gotten caught up in a human transmutation?"

The silence around me told me that I had brought up a valid point.

"Well, we only have your word for it," the Colonel said.

My heart fell to my feet. Were they going to start doubting my whole story again? Well, when I thought about it, I couldn't blame them. If somebody appeared at the back of my house claiming that they were from another world, I'd simply think they were either lying or insane. That wasn't going to help me, though, nor was it going to help my dad. By this point, however, if anything of what we had just discussed was true, there was no way I would be able to help him anyway, I thought, eliciting a sudden sharp pain in my upper chest.

The woman beside me spoke for the first time. "Well, there is a way to test if she's telling the truth or not."

"You mean the polygraph?" the Colonel asked.

"Yes."

I didn't know if I should feel relieved or not. There were ways to cheat in the polygraph test, but I had never learnt any of them. If it helped them believe me, then I'd gladly take it. Although all it would prove was that _I_ believed in my story, but that didn't make it true.

"Lieutenant, would you please do me the favor of putting this girl through the polygraph test? That way we'll have at least some evidence she is not a Drachman spy."

"Yes, sir." The woman pulled from my arm. "This way, please."

But I stood in my place. "What's going to happen to my dad?"

"If it makes you feel better, I will call the Briggs Fort, asking if there have been reports of an avalanche nearby."

"But if he's not there, if this is actually not my world, how is that going to help him?"

"Well, Selena, if this isn't your world then there isn't much you can do for him anyway."

His cold answer made my chest hurt again, but I could find no reply as the woman pulled from my arm. I felt like crying as I followed her down the room, hearing Alphonse's armor clatter for a second just before a door slammed closed behind me.

_Dad… what am I gonna do?_

* * *

_A/N: Sorry for the long time it took me to update, it's just that I edited this part so many times I have lost count of them. Please, please let me know what you think of it so far. Are the characters too OOC? Is the story believable, at least? As you may probably have realized, I know nothing about chemistry, and what little I know of physics is from doing research on Internet and Discovery Channel lol. The thing is that I transferred when I was a sophomore in high school, and my previous school had chemistry in junior year, while the new school had chemistry on the sophomore year, which meant that I never took chemistry. So please, let me know if what I write is too ridiculous. I've done research, but it's never as good as taking a course of chemistry or physics. _

_Thanks so much for reading and don't forget to review!_


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